Vaccine Development of COVID-19

Developing a successful vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 

The vaccine development effort in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in terms of both scale and speed. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 vaccines will be essential in reducing morbidity and mortality if/when the virus establishes itself in the population. The race is now on for the development of both a safe and, effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.

Why is a coronavirus vaccine important?

The virus spreads easily and the majority of the world's population is still vulnerable to it. A vaccine would provide some protection by training people's immune systems to fight the virus so they should not become sick.

What sort of progress is being made?

1.  Research is happening at breakneck speed. About 140 are in early development, and around two dozen are now being tested on people in clinical trials.
2. Trials of the vaccine developed by Oxford University show it can trigger an immune response and a deal has been signed with AstraZeneca to supply 100 million doses in the UK alone.
3.  The first human trial data back in May indicated the first eight patients taking part in a US study all produced antibodies that could neutralize the virus.
4.  A group in China showed a vaccine was safe and led to protective antibodies being made. It is being made available to the Chinese military.
5.  Other completely new approaches to vaccine development are in human trials. However, no-one knows how effective any of these vaccines will be.

What still needs to be done?

1. Multiple research groups have designed potential vaccines, however, there is much more work to do.
2. Trials need to show the vaccine is safe. It would not be useful if it caused more problems than the disease
3. Clinical trials will also need to show vaccines provoke an immune response, which protects people from getting sick
4. A way of producing the vaccine on a huge scale must be developed for the billions of potential doses
5. Medicines regulators must approve it before it can be given
6. Finally, there will be a huge logistical challenge of actually immunizing most of the world's population

Source:

1.  https://www.bbc.com/news/health
2.  https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine
3.  https://www.webmd.com/lung/covid-19-vaccine
4.  https://www.invivogen.com/covid-19-vaccine-development